New Economic Development manager comes to Vallejo

Vallejo continues climbing out of its bankruptcy and recession doldrums by hiring a new Economic Development Department manager, city officials said Friday.

And officials say that hiring is just part of an economic upswing for the city. They cited new hiring goals for the police and building departments as examples.

Kathleen Diohep will start Monday as the manager of the economic development department. City Manager Dan Keen and Economic Development Department Director Mark Sawicki said she will be formally introduced to the City Council on Tuesday. Officials are also close to hiring a new chief building official, they added.

Diohep comes to the city from the Port of San Francisco, where she negotiated some large deals, demonstrating talents Vallejo needs to facilitate the big things many hope for on the former Naval shipyard in particular, Sawicki said.

"Her skill set is in negotiating public-private partnership transactions the likes of which we would be entering into on North Mare Island for development, as well as re-initiating waterfront development," Sawicki said.

Diohep will be the division's manager, under Sawicki, who heads the department which oversees building and planning as well as economic development, he said.

The official manages the building division, arranging inspections and plan reviews and helps provide "better customer service for those seeking building permits for new development," Sawicki said. "We're close. It will be in the next couple of weeks. We have a preferred candidate and we're working on that."

Many city departments were decimated by economic forces in 2009, when the economic development division whittled down to one employee, with some of the work farmed out to contractors, Sawicki said. The department is back up to 18 full-time employees and will top out at about 20, he said.

The Police Department also recently launched a major recruitment campaign, and other departments are hiring, too, he said.

"The city's financial position is better and from my department's perspective, we want to capture the window -- the up cycle -- on the economic side, by attracting interested businesses and process them when they come in with a little more speed and certainty," Sawicki said. "We need to protect zoning and building safety but at the same time we all benefit from improvement and new development."

The hiring boom is being made possible by Measure B funds, Keen said.

"We're getting more sales taxes than projected, which is a good thing," he said. "It indicates a turnaround in the economy -- not a guns blazing, hurray, hurray type of recovery, but improved sales and property taxes."

"Last year, the City Council said its goals this year are all about economic development, about getting things going and using it as a solution to getting out of our structurally imbalance budget."

The iron is hot, so-to-speak, he said, and the city should be prepared to strike.

"We have land, we have interest from the private sector and an economy that appears to be cooperating, and it's important the city takes advantage while the window is open and we need a good staff to do that," he said.

Contact staff writer Rachel Raskin-Zrihen at (707) 553-6824 or rzrihen@timesheraldonline.com. Follow her on Twitter at Rachelvth.